Does your company have more than 250 employees or combine the following two conditions?
1- achieve an annual turnover of more than €50 million
2- present a total balance sheet total of more than €43 million
According to European Directive 2012/27/EU, you must manage and rationalize energy use and conduct an energy audit every four years.
The energy audit consists of taking a snapshot of the company's energy consumption and identify the potential savings and recommends a prioritized action plan taking into account the specific constraints of the site, the energy and economic gains as well as the payback period.
It is estimated that in each factory there is a potential of 20 to 30% savings whether expressed in kilowatt hours or in euros.
The financial savings are not only energy savings on the kWh saved. They can also relate to maintenance, or even quality, productivity, or even safety. We then speak of induced gains.
The actions leading to these potential gains mobilize an investment representing 3/4 of the annual energy bill, but the ROI is usually less than 2 years.
The first stage of the energy management system: carrying out an inventory.
This step has two complementary parts:
1- a technical inventory of the installations;
2- an organizational inventory of the management in place.
The technical inventory allows the company in particular to carry out its “energy review in accordance with chapter 4.4.3 of the ISO 50001 standard”, i.e.:
a- analyze energy uses and consumption from measurements and other data;
b- identify significant energy uses;
c- identify, prioritize and record the potential for improving energy performance.
The organizational inventory allows the company to assess the factors contributing to the effective and sustainable management of energy, in particular:
d- inventory of resources, roles and responsibilities to promote energy efficiency;
e- the level of energy awareness, training and skills;
f- operational control.
The objective is to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to establish action plans for progress.
At the end of the realization of an inventory, the companies have a complete report allowing them to quickly visualize their strong axes and their axes of improvements with a view to obtaining the certification.
Subsequently, this evaluation will go along with them throughout the Energy Management process in order to see the evolution of the various indicators of the company according to the actions implemented.
It is estimated that in most cases:
88% of energy saving actions, recommended and adopted, focus on equipment (equipment, buildings, supplies):
- Action with the energy supplier;
- Replacement or adjustment of equipment;
- Actions on the building;
- Conversion to renewable energies;
12% of the actions, recommended and retained, concern the management system in the broad sense:
- Train and educate employees;
- Monitor consumption;
- Deploy a measurement plan and energy performance indicators;
- Upgrade its energy management system to ISO 50001.
Recover waste heat to benefit from energy that has already been paid!
Energy is essential to the majority of manufacturing processes and industrial utilities. A sometimes significant proportion of the heat produced by this energy is inevitably rejected: hot air, cooling water, smoke condensates, steam or steam from processes. This is referred to as “fatal heat”. This heat is in most cases recoverable. It can become a significant source of energy savings.
Fatal heat can be:
- used internally, to meet the specific needs of the company;
- sold externally, to meet the heat needs of other companies or other users via a heat network.
STEP 1: Planning the audit.
Goals definition;
Division of production equipment into control volumes (or units);
Definition of analysis and monitoring tasks;
Allocation of responsibilities.
STEP 2: Data collection.
Production data by product;
Consumption data by type of energy;
Time evolution of production - consumption (day, week, month...).
STEP 3: Carrying out the measurements.
Definition of campaigns and test matrices;
Inventory of measures available on site;
Inventory of additional measures to be taken;
Instrumentation preparation;
Carrying out the measurements.
STEP 4: Data processing – Energy balances – Yields.
Processing of measurement results;
Specific consumption evaluation - comparisons with "standards";
Control of energy balances - Assessment of losses;
Interpretation of any differences – Corrections;
STEP 5: Identification of possible improvements in energy management.
In the processing of data;
In the monitoring of cost-saving measures…;
STEP 6: Identification of maintenance improvements.
Staff awareness;
Assessment of possible savings;
Definition of responsibilities for implementation.
STEP 7: Identify low-investment improvements.
Thermal insulation;
Electrical balance (cos ϕ , quarter-hourly)...;
STEP 8: Identification of improvements requiring large investments.
Assessment of net annual savings;
Assessment of investment costs;
Analysis of economic profitability and risk;
Means of financing;
STEP 9: Preparation of the report.